Wednesday, November 28, 2007

back in Europe...Austria - 28.11.2007


...I´m back in the blogger world! This time from Austria, I moved here on Monday after I spent 3 weeks in Germany. My new home is the house on the bottom left.

my new workplace mount Gerlitzen...I´ll work there as a lift boy for the winter

Today I had a free afternoon, so I used my free time to hike up the mountain on which I live, it´s called "Wöllaner Nock" and about 2100m high.

already some snow up there...

nothing compared to a Vancouver westcoast sunset...but still pretty cool! The high mountains in the back belong already to Italy and Slovenia.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

USA-Mexico-Canada Tour - October 23rd - 28th


October 23rd, today the mountains called me...so I decided to do a little hike up to Agnes Lake which lays above Lake Louise. The way up was covered with ice and snow, Agnes Lake itself lays in a bowl sourounded by some nice peaks. From there I went further half way around the lake and the a steep snow covered trail up to the ridge from where I had the chance to see Lake Louise. Then I went down on the south side towards the 'Plain of six glaciers'. The hike down to Lake Louise was mostly downhill. I stoped for lunch along the trail with a nice view of the sourounding glaciers. Back at the hostel I had lunch with Rabea and then we went to the bus stop. There we met our roommates from last night, a girl from Germany and a young man from Slovakia. After 3 hours on the bus we got to Revelstoke, BC where we stayed for the night.


October 24th, yeah that picture says a lot...haha I found that poster in our hostel. Well today we had a day in Revelstoke, BC. So we decided to take it easy because it was rainy and cold. We went to the local swimming pool with hot tub, sauna, steam room, and even a water slide. The afternoon we hang around at the hostel. Then at 7pm we took the bus, our next stop was Salmon Arm where we transfered buses, in Cache Creek we had to transfer again.

October 25th, after all night on the Greyhound bus we arrived in Prince George at 6am. After a 3 hours layover we could cointinue our journey up to Prince Rupert, which took us untill 8pm. I must say the scenery along the way was amazing and we also got to see a couple of nice mountains. Yes so then we arrived in Prince Rupert, BC around 8pm. It was good to get off the bus after 25 hours. The Pioneer hostel felt more like a hotel with neat little rooms. The evening we spent at the hostel talking to another guy from Edmonton, he was on his way to the Queen Charlotte Islands...

October 26th, In the morning we had a little walk through Prince Rupert, I was surpised how big the town actually is. Prince Rupert is famous for it's two ferry connections, one up to Alaksa and the other one down the coast to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. The second one was the reason for us to come all the way up to Port Hardy. Our ferry left at 1pm. Although the weather was kind of rainy, windy and cold the scenery was still pretty cool. The boat didn't go the route through the open water, instead we sailed down a long channel along the coast. The whole trip would be 22 hours so we had to sleep on the boat. Around 10pm the boat stoped at a little native village named 'Klemtu' and picked up some stuff, the same around 3am at another tiny village called 'Bella Bella'.

October 27th, We rrived in Port Hardy, BC around 11am and as usual it was raining. We took shuttle bus to the hostel and then checked out the little town 'Port Hardy'. We even got to see a bear and some eagles. In the evening we and guy from Whitehorse,Yukon went to a local pub and played pool with some locals...

October 28th, kind of a strange feeling to wake up and know that this would be my last day of my trip around North America...I've seen so many things and it will take me a while to get used to 'normal life' again. I had about 7 hours on the bus down to Nanaimo, BC to think about my past several weeks and the things I've experienced along the way. From Nanaimo we took the ferry to Vancouver, BC and the bus droped us off at the Pacific Central station from where I started my trip...
Thanks for beeing interested in my blog and the "adventures" I had, it's always good to know somebody somewhere in this world keeps an eye on me! CHEERS!

More pictures:
Part I http://picasaweb.google.com/manueldanner/USAMexicoCanadaTour2007
Part II http://picasaweb.google.com/manueldanner/USAMexicoCanadaTourII

Thursday, November 01, 2007

USA-Mexico-Canada Tour - October 13th - 22nd


October 13th, Winnipeg itself isn't a big city...but so many people know stories about so I was kind of excited to see that place where it can get -50 degrees in the winter time. I rode around the city almost all day and then in the evening I hung out with some other volunteers.

October 14th, today we all took it easy and didn't do much. In the evening I went out for a drink with 2 of the volunteers. Later that night I was supposed to catch a bus to Saskatoon but I found out when I got there that this was isn't included in my Greyhound bus pass. Well so I slept one more night in Winnipeg and then took the bus the next day.

October 15th, so finally I was back on the bus through the prairies to Saskatoon, SK. People always told me the prairies are flat and boring... yeah and I agree on the flat part but not on the boring part. It was cool to see the endless open space with a few little villages along the highway. Then around 8pm I got to Saskatoon where my friend's parents picked me up. First thing they did with me was to go to a eatery and lounge to have some food and beer! Parents like these are great...

October 16th, Saskatoon itself isn't really a tourist town...but it lays on the Saskatchewan river and has a few nice buildings. And there was a museum about native history in that area. For dinner we were a big group, my friend's siblings and cosuin had dinner with us. It was great to get to know them. Then after dinner and dessert I had to go back on the bus...

October 17th, after a long long detour I arrived in Medicine Hat, AB where Kaylene (old friend from Vancouver) picked me up. We bought some ugly sweaters for the college party next night and then went to play volleyball with a bunch of her friends from school.

October 18th, Kaylene had to attend some classes in the morning so I went fo ra run. In the afternoon we went kayaking on a river there and then in the evening we went to that Medicine Hat College bar - The Den -. And it really was a great party where I had the chance to meet a lot of new people...aromd 3 am after we partied more at the student residence we all went to bed. Oh yeah look a my nice ugly sweater we got that from a thrift store...

October 19th, I had to get up at 7am so I could catch the bus to Calgary, AB...well it maybe wasn't the best idea to go to bed so late like we did. So I slept most of the time to Calgary. There I had to check in at the hostel, then get some food and later in the afternoon I had to pick a friend from Germany that would join me for my last 2 weeks in Canada. After I picked her up we went to buy some groceries for our supper. The evening we spent inside because of the rainy weather.

October 20th, in the morning Rabea and I checked out Calgary downtown and around noon we decided to take the bus to Banff because in Calgary wasn't much to see beside some hight buildings and a few people that pretend to be cowboys...once we got to Banff, AB we hookd up with a gyu from Australia and hiked up to the hostel which was up on Tunnel Mountain. We had supper, drunk some beer and then went to bed around 10pm.

October 21st, once I'm in the Rocky Mountains I have to go for a hike, so we hiked along a small river. After that we went to the Hot Springs and then hiked bacl to the hostel. It was already quite cold there and we also had a little bit of snow. Banff itself was full with people from all over the world. These people tried to find a job for the winter in the ski areas around Banff.

October 22nd, the next stop for us was Lake Louise, AB. The Greyhound bus dropped us off close to the hostel, nice big hostel with a sauna! We used the last sunlight to hike up the 5km to the lake on the way down we got a ride from a couple from England. The evening we spent eatind, drinking some wine and in the sauna.